Bookkeeping Clean-Up for a Contractor

The company had grown from two people to ten in under three years. Invoicing, subcontractor payments and equipment purchases were being recorded on and off, bank accounts had not been reconciled in eighteen months, and two GST returns had been filed on estimates rather than actual figures.

The owner came to us after receiving a CRA notice about the sales tax discrepancy, with a corporate year-end six weeks away and no reliable numbers to file from.

What the Client Needed

Three things, in order: an accurate set of books for the period in question, corrected GST filings that would satisfy CRA, and a year-end that could be filed on time without an extension request. Beyond that, the owner wanted a monthly routine simple enough to stick to during a busy construction season — and job-level costing so that quoting could be based on real margins rather than instinct.

What We Did

We rebuilt the eighteen months of records from bank, credit card and supplier statements, reconciled every account to the statement balance, and separated subcontractor payments for T5018 reporting. Input tax credits were reviewed line by line and adjustment returns were filed for the two affected periods, with a written explanation submitted to CRA. Job costing was set up inside the accounting file so that materials, labour and equipment could be tracked per contract. The corporate year-end was completed and filed with two weeks to spare, and the company now sends documents to us monthly through a shared folder.